Ciryl Gane has been watching the Josh Hokit show, and he isn’t fooled by it. Speaking on “UFC Countdown” ahead of Saturday’s UFC 334 main event at Madison Square Garden, the heavyweight champion said the goofball routine hides a fighter who knows exactly what he’s doing.
“He is smart. He is really smart,” Gane said. “He pretends he’s a clown, he’s stupid, but he’s not. He’s really not.”
Gane didn’t pretend to love the act. “I’m not a big fan of his approach,” he said. “I know this guy likes to talk, and other people like the people who talk.” He also gave Hokit his due for the most recent win. “Josh won the fight against Derrick Lewis; he did well.” And he connected the title shot directly to the hype machine, saying Hokit has a chance to become undisputed champion “because he knows how to do some entertainment.” Then the obligatory closer: “I’m pretty sure we’re going to do a really great fight for the fans, and I’m going to win.”
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The comments were first reported by MMA Junkie.
How They Got Here
Gane (14-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) is 36 and took a winding road to the belt. He finished Alex Pereira to win the interim heavyweight title, then got bumped up to undisputed champion after Tom Aspinall vacated because of ongoing complications with his eyes. Saturday is his first defense with the full title.
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Hokit (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) arrives unbeaten after wins over Curtis Blaydes and former title challenger Derrick Lewis. He has openly admitted the persona helped fast-track him to a title shot, which is refreshingly honest for a guy who spends most of his media time yelling. The card streams on Paramount+.
The trash talk has been a running subplot all week. In an earlier interview with RMC Sport Combat, clipped by RedCorner_MMA on X, Gane said Hokit’s talk wouldn’t get to him unless he went after his mother. Luke Thomas, who has met a heavyweight before, replied on X: “Well, now he’s going to target her, dude.” Hokit, for his part, has been busy picking fights outside the cage too. In a clip posted by DovySimuMMA, he described turning down a handshake from Gable Steveson: “I said, f*ck no, we ain’t no friends.”
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Sal’s Take
Gane’s read is the correct one, and it’s the part of this story that matters for anyone putting money down. Guys who are actually clowns don’t go 4-0 in the UFC with Blaydes and Lewis on the ledger. That said, I’ve been burned enough times by shiny unbeaten records to know a 10-0 mark with only four UFC fights tells you less than it looks like. Gane has 13 UFC fights and two losses, both to the kind of elite heavyweights Hokit hasn’t seen yet. The market has Gane as only a moderate favorite, which means bettors respect Hokit more than the theater suggests. I’m not grabbing the dog off the strength of a press conference. I want to see whether Hokit’s pressure holds up against Gane’s movement past the first five minutes, because that’s the fight, and it starts Saturday, November 14, in New York.
